Security analysts lay out three models \u2014 that of Germany, Israel, and Korea \u2014 to draw on to end war. Russian forces have moved to within six kilometers of Pokrovsk, ISW estimates. Ukrainian troops repel 49 attacks in the Kurakhove direction in the past day as 203 combat engagements are reported across the frontlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are three ways to provide security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a potential cease-fire deal to end the war with Russia, Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita said Tuesday, citing security analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first one is copying the Germany model. In this scenario, Ukraine would be accepted into NATO even if it does not restore sovereignty over its entire territory. Similarly, West Germany joined NATO in 1955.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second one is the Israel model. This scenario entails a massive supply of weapons to Ukraine that will continue after a potential peace deal is struck. Yet this path is uncertain in view of \u201cthe budgetary difficulties\u201d facing the U.S. and Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third one is the Korea model. In such a scenario, an international peacekeeping mission would guard a demarcation line. The reference is to the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea established more than 70 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Camille Grand, former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment, told Rzeczpospolita that the most solid security guarantees for Ukraine should be based on the third model, with some elements of the first two models included. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Zelenskyi said Monday that Ukraine is open to French President Macron\u2019s idea of deploying Western troops to the country as a security guarantee before its NATO membership. \u201cBut we must have a clear understanding of when Ukraine will be in the EU and when Ukraine will be in NATO,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
France\u2019s Le Monde reported last month that discussions over sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine had been revived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Macron traveled to Warsaw on Thursday to discuss the idea of a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked by Politico whether Ukraine could accept foreign troops deployed on its soil, Ukraine\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Minister of Justice, Olha Stefanishyna said: \u201cUkraine is ready to speak about whatever works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces continue to make tactical gains south of Pokrovsk, in Donetsk region, but the massive losses they are taking to do so will undermine their ability to translate these gains into more far-reaching offensive operations, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a report on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Geolocated footage published on December 10 indicates that Russian forces have advanced in western Novyi Trud and along the E50 highway south of Dachenske, narrowing the small pocket west of the E50 highway and south of the Novyi Trud-Dachenske line. This advance places Russian forces about six kilometers south of Pokrovsk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces will likely continue efforts to close the pocket between Novyi Trud and Dachenske in the coming days, as doing so will provide them a stronger position from which to assault Shevchenko (just northwest of Novyi Trud and southwest of Pokrovsk).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces continue to make tactical gains south of Pokrovsk as they attack into Ukrainian weak points and attempt to conduct a turning maneuver to directly assault Pokrovsk from the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ukrainian Khortytsia Group of Forces Spokesperson Colonel Nazar Voloshyn noted on December 11 that Russian forces attacked Ukrainian fortifications west of Novyi Trud, south of Novotroitske (southwest of Shevchenko), and on the southwestern outskirts of Shevchenko itself. Voloshyn reported that Ukrainian forces lost two positions during these attacks and are working to restore them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISW recently assessed that the Russian command has resumed offensive operations to seize Pokrovsk via a turning maneuver from the south, but that this maneuver is coming at a massive cost to Russian manpower and equipment. Another Ukrainian brigade officer reported that Russian forces lost nearly 3,000 personnel in the Pokrovsk direction in two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continued Russian losses at this scale will impose a mounting cost on Russia\u2019s already-strained force generation apparatus. Russian forces may well continue making gains towards Pokrovsk, but the losses they are taking to do so will temper their ability to translate these gains into more far-reaching offensive operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation across the frontlines remains difficult, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an update on Thursday morning, adding that 203 combat engagements happened in the past day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Kharkiv direction, Russian forces stormed Ukrainian positions near Hlyboke, Lyptsi, Starytsya, and Vovchansk six times to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Kupyansk direction, Russian forces staged 14 attacks in the past day. Ukrainian troops repelled their offensive actions near Zapadne, Pishchane, Lozova, and Zahryzove, the General Staff said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Lyman direction, Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions 30 times. They tried to pierce the Ukrainian defenses near Tverdokhlibove, Druzhelyubivka, Novoyahorivka, Hrekivka, Makiyivka, Terny, Torske, Hryhorivka, Kopanka, and in the Serebryansky forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Siversk direction, Ukrainian troops repelled a Russian offensive near Verkhnyokamyanske.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Kramatorsk direction, Russian forces made two attempts to advance, one near Chasiv Yar, and the other near Stupochky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces stormed Ukrainian positions near Toretsk five times in the past day, heavily using glide bombs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Pokrovsk direction, Ukrainian troops stopped the enemy\u2019s 40 offensive actions. Russian forces were relying on aircraft. In the Kurakhove direction, Ukraine\u2019s defense forces repelled 49 attacks. In the Vremivka direction, Russian forces stormed Ukrainian positions near Trudove, Kostyantynopolske, Sukhi Yaly, Blahodatne, and Novodarivka 29 times, largely using the bombers to conduct airstrikes, the report reads. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"